On the second day of the Lunar New Year in the second year of Wu Ding, on the eve of the emperor's inspection of Zhaoyuan Iron Mine, he came to the West Palace where Yang Qing'er was, said goodbye to the queen, and stayed here by the way.
As the snow began to fall, the queen ordered people to set up charcoal fires in the four corners of the palace, and lit two sticks of ambergris. The surroundings felt warm, as if spring had suddenly entered.
When Liu Zhaosun entered the room, he took off his cloak and took off his five-claw dragon robe, leaving only a thin leather bean suit. He sat cross-legged on the Tai Chi futon, closed his eyes and concentrated, like an old monk in meditation.
The Tai Chi Bagua futon was given by Zhang Zhenren, who has been following the emperor for a long time. In the past, he dismissed these theories of ghosts and gods. After experiencing the Wang Gongchang explosion, things in the world are impermanent and fate has caused major changes in the three views of the time travellers. Change.
Liu Zhaosun, who was comparable to a saint in the past, has since died, and the living one has gone to the other extreme. Perhaps good and evil, gods and demons are just a thought.
Nowadays, the world of the Emperor of Da Qi consists not only of killing, but also of power. In the constant killing, his temperament is changing.
The emperor became more and more mean, even refusing to let go of a local snake selling aphrodisiacs in Linqing.
Maybe he likes to manipulate other people's fates with pranks.
He performed castration surgery on Dongfang Zhu, who had a wife and six concubines, buried French sailors alive and then planted plane trees on the spot. He fantasized about walking under the plane trees with Yang Qinger in the future (it is said that this inspiration came from a certain bald man who loved to write diaries)
Fate is unpredictable and life is unpredictable. Only in this way can the time traveler resist the uncertainty of fate and gain a rare sense of security.
That's right, Liu Zhaosun, who is as invincible as a demigod, lacks the most sense of security now. Even massacre cannot bring him a sense of security.
He wants to defeat magic with magic.
The best way to avoid being knocked down by misfortune is to become the misfortune itself.
"The Xuanzong of Heaven and Earth, with all the powerful roots, cultivated for hundreds of millions of kalpas, and proved my magical power!"
Only when he closes his eyes and recites the incantation like this every day, can Liu Zhaosun feel his own existence, can he continue to gaze into his heart, can he recall the past a long time ago, can he have some kind of spiritual connection with his dead self, and will he not continue to sink.
Yang Qing'er came to her husband with a bowl of freshly cooked lotus seed porridge.
Emperor Wu Ding sat cross-legged in a circle, holding his hands together and placing them on his heart, his eyes slightly closed, and murmuring something.
In the Ming Dynasty, Taoism flourished, and many emperors were keen on Fuqi elixirs. Fuqi was popular among scholar-bureaucrats to seek immortality. Although Yang Qing'er's father, Yang Hao, was not good at this, Yang Qing'er was the daughter of an official after all, and she still had some understanding of these Fuqi Taoist methods.
Yang Qing'er listened for a while, her eyebrows hanging upside down, and she looked at the emperor's back angrily.
Many women in this era believe in these heresies, but Yang Qing'er dismisses these gods and goddesses. She feels that only stupid men and women will believe in these tricks. For example, Wang Xijue's daughter Wang Taozhen decades ago was obsessed with These spells lead to unknown deaths.
"Husband, we have to part ways again tomorrow. When will you come back?"
Liu Zhaosun's meditation was suddenly interrupted, and there was a hint of sullenness on his face. When he saw Yang Qing'er standing next to him, he forced a smile:
"After inspecting Zhaoyuan, I went to Yuncheng to have a look. There is no grain harvest there, and people will starve to death in the wild spring."
When Emperor Wu Ding said that people were starving to death from famine, his expression did not change at all, as if he was talking about something far away from him. He stood up from the futon. The palace maid Amber handed over a sweat towel, and the emperor took it and put it on his forehead. He wiped the non-existent sweat beads on his body, and when he threw the sweat towel over, he caressed it in the palace maid's hand.
Yang Qing'er saw it and pretended not to see it, only to hear Emperor Wu Ding continue:
"I am currently raising more than 60,000 young people in vain. They do not farm or do business. They are responsible for training and killing people for me. To feed these 60,000 people, we need 600,000 farmers or more, but now that the young and old are not available, Nanming will not provide them. We have sold food. Now the food stored in the national treasury is almost not enough. I still have to leave tens of thousands of shi of food to prepare for the Liaodong war in March. At present, all the big corrupt officials in Shandong have been killed, and the Ming army's food and grass have also been seized. We are almost running out and will soon be exhausted.”
"So, in the next two months, Daqi," the emperor turned back to look at the queen and said with an unchanged expression, "Daqi will begin to implement the wartime distribution system."
Yang Qing'er heard her husband talk about the wartime distribution system. She had handled grain and grass when she was in Kaiyuan, and she knew what it meant without her husband's explanation.
After the first lunar month, this year's spring plowing is over. Except for the soldiers who aid the Liao Dynasty, all the food and materials needed by the Qi State, both officials and civilians, will be distributed centrally. Each household has a fixed ration of coal per person per day, and it will be gone once it is used up.
Yang Qing'er knows that when food is scarce, this is the only way to reduce the incidence of starvation to death.
The power of the Daqi state was strong enough. Emperor Wuding's power not only firmly controlled the prefectures and counties, but even the most remote villages were controlled by the peasant associations. The peasant associations and the army were the right-hand men of Emperor Wuding, even more powerful than the emperor. The left and right arms are even easier to use.
This so-called wartime distribution system is actually not unusual at all. Many people have thought of it. However, just thinking about it does not mean that it can be achieved. If you want to truly distribute food evenly, you not only need to have extremely strong execution power, but also need to be efficient. Incorruptible bureaucracy, unfortunately, the Daqi Empire fully meets these two points.
"In this way, fewer people will starve to death."
Yang Qing'er frowned, suddenly remembering the New Year's Eve family banquet the day before yesterday. Her husband asked Chef Tan Er and others to prepare one hundred and eight dishes. Delicacies from the mountains and seas were placed in front of him. The emperor was actually less interested and just drank some wine. He didn't know how much food was wasted.
"Husband, you have changed."
Yang Qing'er summoned up the courage to persuade the emperor.
"Yes," Liu Zhaosun reached out and touched Yang Qing'er's pretty face.
"People will always change. Madam, you have to remember that I am a human being and I will change. Now I only care about victory or defeat, not life or death."
